The present invention relates to an autonomous flying wing or like unmanned aerial vehicle and more particularly but not exclusively to an autonomous flying wing or like unmanned aerial vehicle which is collapsible for storage and delivery.
It is often necessary to survey regions of the earth""s surface from the air, for example when looking for survivors of lost ships or aircraft, or following earthquakes or natural disasters.
Aerial reconnaissance is as old as flight itself but large-scale reconnaissance is generally limited by the availability of manpower and aircraft. Furthermore it is expensive to keep a manned aircraft in the air, and in certain circumstances it may even be particularly dangerous, for example if the reconnaissance is being carried out over enemy territory.
Thus, in recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles and micro-vehicles such as the autonomous flying wing have been developed. The autonomous flying wing is much smaller than a conventional aircraft because it does not have to carry a human pilot. Although it is powered, its power requirements are considerably lower than any conventional aircraft and its manufacturing cost is orders of magnitude lower. It is generally delivered to a deployment zone by a conventional aircraft, following which it is released and, because of its small size and low cost, it can be deployed in much larger numbers than has heretofore been possible.
Nevertheless, one of the limitations in the use of an autonomous flying wing is ease of deployment, in particular the number of such flying wings that can be deployed from a single conventional aircraft or that can be stored in a single conventional underwing pod.
Embodiments of the present invention provide an autonomous flying wing or like unmanned aerial vehicle with collapsible wings, which is inexpensive, can be packaged in small containers and can be released, for example, from an aircraft in great numbers to perform a plurality of missions. The containers may typically be pods for underwing storage in a conventional aircraft.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is thus provided an autonomous flying wing comprising at least two wing portions arranged substantially symmetrically about a center portion, each wing portion being pivotally attached to each adjoining portion such that the wing portions are foldable for storage and openable for deployment.
Preferably there are at least four wing portions arranged substantially symmetrically about the center.
Preferably, each wing portion is substantially rigid.
Preferably there is also an automatic deployment device operable to automatically unfold the wing portions upon deployment.
Preferably, the automatic deployment device comprises at least one actuator operable to rotate the wing portions about the pivotal connections.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of storing, delivering and deploying a plurality of autonomous flying wings comprising pivotally connected substantially rigid wing parts, the method comprising the steps of
folding the flying wings about pivotal connections between wing parts,
storing the folded flying wings in a container,
placing the container on a conventional aircraft,
delivering the container, on the conventional aircraft, to a deployment zone, and
extracting each flying wing from the container whilst unfolding the flying wing, thereby to deploy the flying wing.
Preferably, the container is an underwing pod.
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided an unmanned aerial vehicle comprising:
a central portion having a front, a front portion, a medial portion an aft portion and an aft; and
at least two deployable wing elements being pivotally connected one on each side of the central portion, the deployable wing elements being openable from a collapsed undeployed state, in which they are inoperative, to an extended deployed state, in which they are operative, and wherein the deployable wing elements are rigid.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided an autonomous flying wing comprising a controller for controlling the flight thereof, the autonomous flying wing being borne in a deployable manner by a mother aircraft to a deployment zone, the wing being connected via a data link to an input device in the mother aircraft such that the controller is preprogrammable from the mother aircraft whilst being borne to the deployment zone.
A preferred embodiment includes a central portion and at least two wing portions, each wing portion being pivotally attached to each adjoining portion such that the wing portions are foldable for storage and openable for deployment.
Preferably, the data link is a wireless data link.
Preferably, the wireless data link is any one of a group comprising an infra-red link, an RF link and a microwave link.
Preferably, the wing is stored as one of a plurality of flying wings in a storage device mounted on the mother aircraft, and the data link includes an addressing unit operable to address each flying wing independently. The wings can thus be addressed singly, or in predefined groups or as a whole.
Preferably, the processor is operable to arrange data from the input device into a mission plan for the flying wing.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of aerial screening of a land or sea region, comprising
providing a plurality of unmanned collapsible flying wings in a collapsed configuration,
bearing the flying wings packed together in a container to a deployment zone,
launching the container,
deploying the collapsible flying wings from the container,
opening the collapsible flying wings
allowing the flying wings to automatically navigate to screen the region through different types of sensors.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of aerial screening of a land or sea region comprising the steps of providing a plurality of collapsible flying wings in a collapsed state on an airborne platform,
releasing the plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles from the airborne platform whilst at the same time unfolding into an operational state, and
allowing the plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles to navigate so as to screen the region.